homenews | College of Science

Hints that dark energy may evolve

March 24, 2025

DESI is an international galaxy survey experiment with more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions around the world, including from the University of Utah, and is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The collaboration shared their findings today in multiple papers that will be posted on the online repository arXiv and in a presentation at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California.

“What we are seeing is deeply intriguing,” said Alexie Leauthaud-Harnett, co-spokesperson for DESI and a professor at UC Santa Cruz. “It is exciting to think that we may be on the cusp of a major discovery about dark energy and the fundamental nature of our universe.”

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) operating out of the Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Taken alone, DESI’s data are consistent with our standard model of the universe: Lambda CDM (where CDM is cold dark matter and Lambda represents the simplest case of dark energy, where it acts as a cosmological constant with constant energy density). However, when paired with other measurements, there are mounting indications that the impact of dark energy may be weakening over time and that other models may be a better fit. Those other measurements include the light leftover from the dawn of the universe (the cosmic microwave background or CMB), exploding stars (supernovae), and how light from distant galaxies is warped by gravity (weak lensing).

“We’re guided by Occam’s razor, and the simplest explanation for what we see is shifting,” said Will Percival, co-spokesperson for DESI and a professor at the University of Waterloo. “It’s looking more and more like we may need to modify our standard model of cosmology to make these different datasets make sense together—and evolving dark energy seems promising.”

So far, the preference for an evolving dark energy has not risen to “5 sigma,” the gold standard in physics that represents the threshold for a discovery. However, different combinations of DESI data with the CMB, weak lensing, and supernovae sets range from 2.8 to 4.2 sigma. (A 3-sigma event has a 0.3% chance of being a statistical fluke, but many 3-sigma events in physics have faded away with more data.) The analysis used a technique to hide the results from the scientists until the end, mitigating any unconscious bias about the data.

“We now have a better understanding of where the preference for evolving dark energy arises in the data,” said University of Utah graduate student Qinxun Li. “By comparing the distance estimates from DESI to those from less distant supernovae and the predictions from the CMB, we can illustrate how a model with time-evolving dark energy describes the data better than does the standard model for the universe.”

DESI is one of the most extensive surveys of the cosmos ever conducted. The state-of-the-art instrument can capture light from 5,000 galaxies simultaneously, and was constructed and is operated with funding from the DOE Office of Science. DESI is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (a program of NSF NOIRLab) in Arizona. The experiment is now in its fourth of five years surveying the sky, with plans to measure roughly 50 million galaxies and quasars (extremely distant yet bright objects with black holes at their cores) by the time the project ends.

Mechanical technician William DiVittorio performs a carbon dioxide cleaning on the mirror of the Mayall Telescope, where DESI operates.

The new analysis uses data from the first three years of observations and includes nearly 15 million of the best measured galaxies and quasars. It’s a major leap forward, improving the experiment’s precision with a dataset that is more than double what was used in DESI’s first analysis, which also hinted at an evolving dark energy.

“These new DESI measurements are not just more precise, but have also been shown to be extremely robust. We have compared these results to previous measurements and performed new tests of internal consistency and have detected no problems in the measurements” said Li, who developed several additional quality assessment tests on the DESI data that are new relative to the first-year results.

DESI tracks dark energy’s influence by studying how matter is spread across the universe. Events in the very early universe left subtle patterns in how matter is distributed, a feature called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). That BAO pattern acts as a standard ruler, with its size at different times directly affected by how the universe was expanding. Measuring the ruler at different distances shows researchers the strength of dark energy throughout history. DESI’s precision with this approach is the best in the world.

The collaboration will soon begin work on additional analyses to extract even more information from the current dataset, and DESI will continue collecting data. Other experiments coming online over the next several years will also provide complementary datasets for future analyses.

“With only three years of data from DESI, we have far more precise measurements than were obtained in ten years using similar techniques in the previous galaxy survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” said Kyle Dawson, a professor in physics and astronomy at the University of Utah. Prof. Dawson was the co-spokesperson for DESI from Sept. 2020 to Aug. 2024 and was also the principal investigator for the last cosmology program within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. “I anxiously await the results from the next few years of DESI and other cosmological programs to see if these 3-4 sigma results fade away or if indeed they stick and reveal new physics beyond what we had assumed in our standard model.”

Videos discussing the experiment’s new analysis are available on the DESI YouTube channel. Alongside unveiling its latest dark energy results at the APS meeting today, the DESI collaboration also announced that its Data Release 1 (DR1), which contains the first 13 months of main survey data, is now available for anyone to explore. With information on millions of celestial objects, the dataset will support a wide range of astrophysical research by others, in addition to DESI’s cosmology goals.

DESI is supported by the DOE Office of Science and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science national user facility. Additional support for DESI is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Humanities, Sciences, and Technologies of Mexico; the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain; and by the DESI member institutions.

Story above adapted from DESI.

Letters from Antarctica #2

March 24, 2025

Three days ago, we got to experience the superpowers of Nuyina as we broke through ice for one kilometer to reach the Denman Glacier. The excitement and spectacle of pushing through sea ice brought everyone out on the decks. It was cold out, so everyone was bundled in layers of clothing and our matching yellow and black coats supplied by the Australian Antarctic Division. Leaning over the railing, I watched as huge pieces of ice bubbled up from deep in the water after being pushed under the hull of the ship. They would rush to the surface, causing a torrent of water to spill over the sides of the ice like a temporary rapid.

shipping container labs

While the experience of breaking ice is new to me, it is normal for Nuyina. Since she first arrived in Hobart in 2021, the ship has been resupplying the Australian Antarctic stations. However, the ship was also built for completing research with scientific labs, a moonpool for water sampling, a CTD (stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth but refers to an instrument for sampling ocean water) hangar, and more science-related infrastructure. This is Nuyina’s first dedicated scientific voyage. Instead of being stocked full of supplies for Australia’s four sub-Antarctic and Antarctic research stations, the cargo hold is packed with shipping containers that have been converted into labs. The heli-hangar is full of floats that will be deployed to collect samples and data. And for the first time, instead of being empty rooms, Nuyina’s labs are bustling with scientists processing newly collected samples.

On this voyage, we almost fill the ship to capacity with about 60 research scientists and 60 crew members and support staff. The scientists on board are split into ten different research teams with topics ranging from biology to geology to atmospheric sciences. Similarly, physical places we are studying vary from sampling sediment layers at the bottom of the ocean to deploying weather balloons that reach the stratosphere. But one thing that all of the different scientists have in common is our region of study: the Southern Ocean.

Barber on deck as a field of broken ice stretches off into the distance

the balloon people

For this voyage, our destination is the Denman Glacier. But as the saying goes, the journey is as important as the destination. My research team, the atmospheric scientists — or as we are colloquially known on the ship, “the balloon people” — has been collecting data since leaving Hobart. We are interested in studying clouds and aerosols in the Southern Ocean and along the coast of Antarctica. Participating in this voyage allows us to be in the region we want to study as well as partner with other teams on board to understand interdisciplinary connections between the ocean and the atmosphere.

The journey has been productive for us as we had the opportunity to release weather balloons in a stratocumulus cloud field in the middle latitudes of the Southern Ocean during the transit down to the glacier. Now that we are at the glacier, we are interested in air masses coming off of the continent or air masses that pass over biologically active areas. In general, we are happy to sample air anywhere near Antarctica.

Other teams on board are more location-dependent. The Denman Glacier is unique geographically because underneath it is the deepest canyon on any of the continents. It reaches 11,500 ft below sea level according to a study by Mathieu Morlighem. That is almost twice as deep as the deepest part of the Grand Canyon. The tongue of the glacier pushes out from the continent, floating on the ocean, and our sampling path has followed along the face of the glacier.

One activity on board has been daily scientific presentations after lunch. Over the course of these presentations, several things have stood out to me. One very clear feature reveals itself in almost every map shown by research groups: Eastern Antarctica (the region south of Australia) is a very data-sparse region. Most of the reason for the lack of observations is geographical, with a one-way voyage from Hobart to the coast of East Antarctica taking as long as a round-trip tourist cruise from Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula and back again. Eastern Antarctica also has less infrastructure with fewer bases and fewer countries operating vessels in the region. All those factors lead to less data being collected in this region.

Large sheets of ice stretch for as far as the eye can see, A common sight in the region: a common sight in the region.

Another common theme in the science talks is the ability to generate a historical story from the region. In a talk by Sally Lau, she discussed how the genetics of a species of octopus could help scientists to understand how shelf-dwelling species survived the glacial periods where ice sheets would have scraped across their habitat. Another record of the history of the region is the layers of sediment in the bottom of the ocean which scientists sample from the Nuyina using coring equipment. When collecting a sediment core, you get a layered stack of mud samples back. Those samples go back in time as you go deeper in the column. Based on the biology and chemistry of the mud, you can date the layers. The properties of the Southern Ocean at the time the mud was deposited can be understood based on what is encapsulated in the sample.

Collecting these samples from the bottom of the ocean is not an easy task and our location makes it even more difficult. Mick, our sea-ice safety expert on the seal tagging team, joked that the glacier is “an iceberg making machine.” That point was driven home this morning by the icebergs moving past the ship at a speed of 3 knots. The ship was keeping its same position as we completed some ocean water sampling but there was the illusion that we were moving as the icebergs were pushed around us by strong underwater currents. The crew’s expertise allowed us to stay in the same location for an hour and a half with instruments in the water without colliding with the huge, moving icebergs around us.

Next week, I will explore how this group of voyage members ended up on the Nuyina. With people from over ten different countries and an array of experience and backgrounds, I will trace back some of the paths that lead to working on a research vessel.

Letters from Antarctica Hub

March 24, 2025

Letters from Antarctica #1

March 24, 2025

Photo from the wharf before boarding the ship. Note the high-vis and hardhat for safety during operations.

Studying a region of the world without seeing it firsthand is a bit like moving to a city that you have never been to. You can look at pictures, check the weather, dive into the data, run google searches, and connect with other people who have been to the region. But it is hard to fully understand what a place is like without getting to spend time there. That is why so many scientists (myself included) value participating in field work.

I am currently on the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina (pronounced ‘noy-yee-nah’) with 60 other scientists and around 60 crew members. One of the questions I get asked most frequently is “How did you end up here?” It’s a good question. As a Utahn — a land-locked state — sailing on an Australian ship in the Southern Ocean, I do seem a bit out of place. I never would have guessed that my career path would take me here, but I’m glad it did.

I completed my undergraduate education at Westminster University in physics. I enjoyed all of my course work but was most invested in the applied physics topics. I also completed a minor in environmental studies, mostly motivated by my love of recreating in the outdoors. If I could complete a class while hiking in the mountains or standing in a river, that was ideal.

A pivotal moment during my time at Westminster was studying abroad in Mongolia. I participated in Round River Conservation Studies which is a program that focuses on completing conservation research while living and taking classes in the field. We traveled by plane, train and car to get to a strictly protected area on the northern border of Mongolia. The experience of crawling out of my tent every morning and being surrounded by the trees I was writing species reports about was incredible.

Some filter units mounted on the ship’s railing.

Getting my sea legs

That experience hooked me on field work. When I graduated and started looking into graduate school options, getting to participate in research campaigns was at the top of my list. I started applying to programs in physics-related fields and decided atmospheric science was the ideal path to follow. I also had an interest in polar science (science focused around the northern or southern poles) but thought that finding a position in that topic would be difficult. During my application process, I sent emails to potential advisors at all of the schools I applied to. I was planning on moving away from Utah and accepting a position at a different institution. However, my advisor, Jay Mace, reached out with an offer I couldn’t refuse: to study clouds in the Southern Ocean region.

Jay has been highly involved in Southern Ocean cloud and precipitation research since connecting with Alain Protat, a researcher at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, Australia. The two have collaborated for around 15 years on projects relating to the Southern Ocean. Eventually, Jay found himself participating in research voyages on Australian vessels, and soon he was looking for a student to cover some of the research voyages. That is where I came in.

My first time on a ship was a two-week voyage on the RV Investigator out to a buoy in the Southern Ocean. It is an established research location with annual voyages to retrieve and replace the buoy. The location of the buoy is right along the storm track making the voyage quite rough in terms of swell and weather. However, it is a good test of how a person deals with seasickness and life on a ship.

Once I had some experience at sea, more opportunities tended to come up. My second voyage was a 65-day voyage called Multiple Investigations of the Southern Ocean (or MISO, for short) where we sailed from Hobart, Tasmania to the coast of Antarctica and back up to Perth, Australia. During the voyage, we spent about two days close enough to the continent to see it. In discussing my third voyage that I’m currently on, Jay said “think of the best two days from MISO. It will be like that for four weeks.” All of the voyages I have participated in have been in the Southern Ocean, but even with the Australian research vessels and voyages, many questions still remain about the area.

Photo of an LN2 calibration for the microwave radiometer during the week of prep work and set up for the voyage.

Pre-voyage prep

The Southern Ocean is a data-sparse region due to the lack of people and landmasses. Australia has two ships dedicated to completing scientific voyages. Getting to sail on those voyages allows us to have surface observations of what is happening in the region to fill in some of our gaps in knowledge about the area. However, being on a ship has its own set of challenges.

The pre-voyage prep is essential to collecting good data; however, the timeframe for prep is often short. Time on the ship is a commodity. The icebreaker is also used for resupplying the Antarctic stations, so the turn-around between voyages is very short, in this case a week. The suite of atmospheric instruments that we have on board required a week’s worth of set up before setting sail.

Setting up the ship means different things for the different science teams on board. For the atmospheric science team, we build stands for our instruments, run power and data cables and complete calibrations before we hit rough conditions. For other teams like the trace metal team, they spend months acid washing and prepping glassware for the voyage. This voyage also requires more work than usual because this is the first scientific voyage on the Nuyina and the labs need to be set up.

The effort, prep, and anticipation for this voyage has taken years. From the process of writing proposals for the voyage itself, finding funding through grants, and completing all of the prep work for the voyage, everyone was excited to finally come on board.

We are currently a week into the voyage and throughout this article series, I will cover what it is like to live and work on a ship, discuss some of the science happening on board and talk about the Denman Glacier where we are heading.

Thanks for following along!

A rigorous, collaborative approach to science

March 19, 2025

"People talked to each other and argued with each other and made suggestions to each other. I thought it was the way science should be done."

Maloy's connection to the U began when he arrived in1981 to work with John Roth, whom colleagues had described to him as "the best bacterial geneticist in the world." Though initially considering other opportunities, it was his visit to Roth's lab that changed Maloy's trajectory.

During his three years at the U (1981-1984), Maloy worked on a then-controversial area of genetic regulation — how genes can auto-regulate themselves. His research challenged the scientific dogma of the time and laid the foundation for his subsequent 30 years of NIH-funded research. In 2024 Maloy was designated a Distinguished Alumnus, recognizing his significant contributions to microbiology, national security, entrepreneurship, and scientific ethics over a career spanning more than three decades.

A Unique Scientific Community

Unlike many postdoctoral experiences where researchers interact primarily within their own labs, the U fostered a broader scientific community. "The group here was phenomenally interactive," Maloy explains. Monthly evening seminars brought together researchers from across disciplines to critically analyze each other's work. "It was the love of thinking about science, considering other explanations, and pondering about what might be wrong."

This culture of rigorous scrutiny fostered what Maloy values most in science: "For science to really serve its purpose, to really reflect reality, it demands that not only that you publish things, but you think through them, that you argue through them, you talk about different applications, different explanations."

From Basic Research to Biotechnology Applications

After leaving Utah, Maloy joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984, where he spent 18 years rising through the ranks to full professor. Throughout his career, he has bridged basic science and practical applications through entrepreneurship.

Maloy has been involved in founding several biotechnology companies, each building upon his fundamental research in bacterial genetics. One company focused on "getting bacteria to evolve new functions quickly," with applications in detergents and other chemical processes. Another venture developed neuropeptides, which later spun off into a company focused on creating novel antimicrobials "of types that didn't exist before."

Perhaps the most promising entrepreneurial effort involves cancer therapeutics. Initially conceived as a vaccine platform, the company pivoted when pre-COVID funding for vaccines proved difficult to secure due to legal risks. Instead, they developed targeted delivery systems for treating specific types of cancer resistant to conventional therapies, such as hormone-resistant prostate cancer.

"That company has products in clinical trials right now for types of cancer that there's no other therapy for," Maloy notes proudly. Having passed initial safety trials, the treatments are now being evaluated for efficacy — potentially offering hope where few options currently exist.

Leadership in Scientific Integrity

Beyond his research and entrepreneurial ventures, Maloy has emerged as a leader in scientific ethics. He recently took over authorship of a widely used textbook on scientific integrity and responsible conduct of research, which is required reading for students working on NIH grants.

Working with colleagues from Michigan and Duke University, Maloy is currently completing a comprehensive revision addressing emerging challenges in scientific ethics, including paper mills, inappropriate citations, and the impacts of artificial intelligence on research integrity.

"Most people in society can't distinguish science from pseudoscience," Maloy explains, underscoring why maintaining scientific integrity is crucial. "If we let these false things become really prevalent, then people will say, 'Oh, look, you know, there's 500 articles on this thing. So it clearly must be right.'"

His latest project involves using virtual and augmented reality to create emotional experiences that help researchers internalize ethical principles. “There is compelling evidence that if somebody really emotionally experiences it, they will more rapidly change their behavior," he explains, demonstrating his innovative approach to tackling even non-scientific challenges.

Despite disappointments when projects Maloy has invested significant time and effort into face setbacks or changes in direction due to shifting political landscapes, his work in the Republic of Georgia has proven meaningful. In Georgia he and his team have established an SDSU branch to help transform their post-Soviet higher education system to support its future without permanent dependence.

A Distinguished Legacy

In his emeritus role at San Diego State University, Maloy continues to conduct research through industry collaborations while generously yielding his university laboratory space to make room for new assistant professors.

His recognition as a Distinguished Alumnus by the U celebrates not only his scientific and entrepreneurial achievements but also his commitment to the rigorous, collaborative approach to science that he first experienced in Salt Lake City—an approach that has informed his entire career and now shapes his work to strengthen scientific integrity for future generations.

Powering Utah’s Coal Industry

March 19, 2025

He emphasizes that mining engineers must work alongside laborers to understand operations firsthand. "You have to understand what they're going through and what they're doing to be able to design a better system for them, to design a mine that doesn't put them at risk, makes mining more efficient."

This approach extends to his views on what makes a successful mining engineer: "If you think you're getting a mining engineering degree to sit in an office and look at a computer, you're mistaken. This is hands-on. Go to work, put on your boots."

Pollastro didn't have to look far for career inspiration. As a fourth-generation underground coal miner from the small town of Spring Glen near Price, Utah, mining is in his blood. His father graduated from the University of Utah's mining engineering program in 1976 and ran multiple coal mines throughout Utah, including taking over the Cottonwood Mine after the 1984 Wilbur Mine disaster.

"Both grandfathers worked in coal mining as well,” Carson says. “One was a chief engineer and the other was a continuous miner operator in different mines in the area."

His great-grandfather emigrated from northern Italy in the early 1900s, drawn to Utah specifically for coal mining opportunities. When not working in the mines, he cut stone for home foundations in Helper — some of which are still standing today.

Pollastro graduated from Carbon High School in 2001 and followed family tradition by enrolling in the U's Mining Engineering program. He was part of a notably small graduating class of just three students in 2008, though the department typically maintained about 40 students total.

He speaks highly of his education, particularly crediting professors (now emeritus) like Kim McCarter, William Pariseau, Felipe Calizaya and recently retired Mike Nielsen for their rigorous approach to education. "They were demanding in a good way," Pollastro recalls. "They wanted you to become an engineer, not just graduate with an engineering degree."

The program entailed passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, a requirement since dropped by most engineering schools. Beyond technical skills, Pollastro particularly values how the department "pushed you as an engineer to learn how to write and communicate, which I think is critical."

From Graduate to CEO

Carson Pollastro, Wolverine Fuels

Graduating in 2008 during a mining boom, Pollastro had seven or eight job offers to consider. He chose to join PacificCorp at the underground Bridger Mine in Rock Springs, Wyoming — a decision he made strategically to accelerate his growth.

"Because it was small enough ... there was only three of us for the mine and its entire operation. So it allowed me to get into many different aspects of the engineering side," he explains. This decision paid off quickly — within just two years of graduating, he became Chief Engineer at Bridger.

In 2011, Pollastro moved to Southern Illinois to join Murray Energy Corporation as assistant VP of Operations at the American Coal Company, which operated two longwall mines — in which long rectangular panels are sliced and then extracted in a single continuous operation — and a shipping port on the Ohio River. He continued with Murray Energy through 2017, eventually helping manage operations when Murray acquired a majority interest in Foresight Energy.

While at Murray Energy, Pollastro pursued an MBA at Washington University in St. Louis, encouraged by his mentor, company founder Robert Murray. "Mr. Murray always retained the president title of all of his coal companies. So he was president. I was Vice President," Pollastro recalls, crediting Murray for being "very instrumental in helping my career grow."

In 2019 Pollastro returned to Utah to oversee Murray Energy's Utah assets. After just five months, Wolverine Fuels recruited him as COO — a position he started on November 1 of that year, coincidentally the same day Murray Energy filed for bankruptcy.

Now as CEO of Wolverine Fuels, Pollastro oversees the largest coal operation in Utah, including the Fossil Rock, Skyline, Sufco and Dugout mines in Utah, plus the idle Bowie #2 mine in Colorado that's currently undergoing reclamation.

Future of Coal in a Green Economy

As the energy landscape evolves toward renewable energy sources, Pollastro offers a pragmatic view of coal's continuing role. "When you look at the whole landscape of energy transition ... we really don't have a clear solution other than nuclear [energy] for base load power," he explains, referring to the amount of electricity — or electrical power — generated that is needed during the course of the day.

The challenge with renewables, according to Pollastro, is their intermittent nature. "Solar farms ... you can only count on 20 percent of that rated capacity to play into the grid," he points out. "Without that base load generation, then we truly have an intermittent power system."

This limitation means conventional energy sources remain essential: "The only answer right now that we have is some geothermal, but mainly coal, natural gas, and, again nuclear ... where you can store your fuel supply. You can produce power on demand when you need it."

Recent global events have reinforced coal's strategic importance. "After [the Ukraine-Russia] war broke out, coal prices worldwide went to all-time highs because that was the base load of power that was needed to power Europe," Pollastro notes.

He believes the energy transition will be much slower than many project: "I do believe, especially for Utah coal, where we're at, we have a low sulfur, high BTU product that is a clean-burning product, to where there's opportunities for us, I think, over the next 20-30 years to remain healthy and in good operation."

Industry Perception and Workforce

Despite the ongoing need for mining, the industry faces significant workforce challenges. "Mining in general has an issue with labor because of this environmental stigma that's out there associated with mining," explains Pollastro, noting the irony that renewable energy production also requires substantial mining operations for raw materials.

This stigma has contributed to a shortage of both mining engineers and general labor. "These kids now from grade school through high school are being raised and taught that mining is bad," he observes, contrasting with his belief that modern mining can be "done in environmentally friendly ways."

Pollastro emphasizes that mining remains essential: "The saying is true — 'if you don't grow it, you mine it,' and everything we use is either grown or mined. There's nothing outside of that that occurs."

For mining companies today, workforce development often means "picking up an inexperienced worker that needs a job, who wants to work and training them to become a miner." The industry also shows generational gaps where economic downturns or negative perceptions deterred entry for periods of time.

Despite these challenges, Pollastro remains optimistic about both coal's role in the energy mix and mining's future as an essential industry. His career trajectory from a small-town Utah graduate to CEO of the state's largest coal operation stands as a testament to the opportunities still available in this centuries-old but ever-evolving field.

In the meantime, Carson Pollastro, perhaps in part because of his family legacy in mining, proudly wears the figurative “blue-collar.”

SRI Stories: Andrea Halling

March 18, 2025

In the field at Great Salt Lake.

Yet it has thrived, acting as both a habitat for brine shrimp and an anchor for the life cycles of migratory birds. Many esteemed scientists have been drawn to the region to study how life can adapt to such harsh conditions.

Science Research Initiative (SRI) postdoctoral researcher Andrea Halling takes this a step further. Not only does she spearhead studies into how life adapts in the lake, she also leads a cohort of students doing the same. In cultivating this environment for students to study evolution, she creates an ideal environment for the students to grow and adapt in turn.

While it wasn’t what initially drew her to higher education, Andrea quickly grew a strong interest in physics and biology. There she found “a purpose in building and contributing to our understanding of the world around us,” and her journey would lead her to the study of the advent of multicellular life, exploring how the Snowball Earth event might have kickstarted it for her Ph.D. dissertation.

To oversimplify, colder liquids are more viscous, making it harder for microorganisms to move through. Increasing their collective size by staying together as a group of cells would physically make it easier to move in the cold, viscous environment. It was a hypothesis supported by her studies, creating the perfect background to launch her further into the field of evolutionary study.

A trajectory of this nature is common in the postdoc demographic, but Andrea’s resume contains a particularly useful quirk in the form of a pre-PhD detour. She taught high school physics and biology, allowing Andrea to enter her mentorship role in SRI with far more momentum than most. “I feel that a lot of the time people assume that freshman level students don’t know enough,” Andrea explains, “that they are empty, that we need to fill their cup of knowledge. And I know from experience that’s absolutely not true. My students are brilliant and have amazing ideas. It’s so fun to be able to build them up from the knowledge they already have.”

Building and expanding this foundation of knowledge is what truly makes SRI so special. As Andrea notes, “Many of these students won’t want to study the Great Salt Lake forever, but there are so many applicable skills that they can learn, to better think like a scientist.” She further notes that “Many wish to go to medical school, where applications will have very similar traits. Doing something like this, like SRI, allows them to set themselves apart.”

Much like the life they are studying, these students have been introduced into a novel research environment rarely found outside of Utah. And thanks to the guidance of Andera Halling, the unique nature of that environment allows them to adapt and to develop equally unique traits and evolve into stronger versions of themselves in the process.

Cool Science Radio: George Cassiday

March 14, 2025

George Cassiday

Not to be confused with the man who served as Congress's primary bootlegger during prohibition, George Cassiday is the recipient of the 2002 Distinguished Teaching award at the University of Utah and was professor of some of the most popular courses in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the U.

Known for teaching some of the more interesting, and arguably unconventional classes at the U, Cassiday taught a course titled "Does E.T. exist?" According to a 2015 article in The Chronicle, the good professor did not want students to simply dismiss his class as an easy way to get past a general education requirement.

“This course is not simply a ‘watered-down’ version of an introductory class in some single scientific discipline, such as basic physics or chemistry,” Cassiday said at the time. “Students learn a lot about different scientific disciplines by attempting to answer a question in which I have never found a single person who is not interested.”

The question students attempt to answer in Cassiday’s course was how life emerged in the Universe. Students also discussed the probability that life could evolve into an intelligent civilization capable of establishing contact with another intelligent civilization, such as ours.

Now professor emeritus, Cassiday talks with KPCW's Cool Science Radio about being part of the original team searching for illusive particles at the sub-atomic level as well as the history of them.

Biology Alum receives 2025 U Honorary Doctorate

March 13, 2025

A three-time alum of the U, Samuelson worked as a rheumatologist, medical school dean and as the U’s vice president of health sciences. He left the university in 1993 to join the executive leadership team at Intermountain Healthcare. A year later, Samuelson was called to serve in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ First Quorum of the Seventy, before being named as BYU’s president, a job he held for a decade.

Samuelson's first degree from the U was in biology in 1966 before going on to graduate school at the U in psychology, culminating with an MD from the medical school.

“Honorary degrees are a recognition of exceptional human beings who have transformed the world in ways large and small,” said President Taylor Randall. “Cecil, Julie, King and Linda have invested their time, talents and financial support to causes that have changed our university, state and the world. We are so fortunate to have exceptional leaders who, through everyday acts and transformational investments, have changed individual lives, bolstered education and advanced culture. The legacy of their work will live on for years to come.”

Honorary degrees are awarded to individuals who have achieved distinction in academic pursuits, the arts, professions, business, government, civic affairs or in service to the university. The Honors Committee, which includes representatives from the faculty, student body and Board of Trustees, reviews nominations and then consults with an advisory group of faculty, staff and administrators for additional input. Finalists are presented to the university president, who then selects the recipients.

“This year’s honorary degree recipients personify selfless service in higher education, passionate advocacy, life-changing innovations and artistic creativity,” said Jamie Sorenson, chair of the Board of Trustees Honors Committee. “We are so pleased to recognize these exceptional individuals for the ways they have lived their lives and inspired future generations to live theirs.”

You can read more about the 2025 honorees in @TheU.

Tooth enamel helps reconstruct wildlife migrations

March 13, 2025

Teeth recovered from a beloved zoo elephant that died in 2008 are helping University of Utah geologists develop a method for tracking the movements of large herbivores across landscapes, even for animals now extinct, such as mastodons and mammoths.

Outlined in recently published findings, the technique analyzes isotope ratios of the element strontium (Sr), which accumulates in tooth enamel. For large plant-eating land mammals, the relative abundance of two strontium isotopes in teeth and tusks reflects where the creature may have roamed during its lifetime.

“Our study not only adds to our understanding of how tooth enamel records an animal’s Sr isotope exposure, but also helps to reconstruct animal migrations from Sr isotope analysis,” lead author Deming Yang said in a posting about the research. “It can be applied to studies of paleobiology, to answer how megaherbivores migrated in the past. It can also be applied to studies of modern conservation and forensics, to trace the origins of illegal ivory trade and other forms of wildlife trafficking.”

The star of the study is Misha, a female elephant acquired by Salt Lake City’s Hogle Zoo in 2005.

Chemically similar to calcium, strontium from the environment accumulates in highly mineralized tissues, such as animals’ bones and teeth.

“As animals eat and drink, they pick up this environmental signature and store it in their teeth, preserving a series of environmental exposures like historic archives,” Yang wrote. This is because the geology of different places presents different isotope signatures for 87-strontium/86-strontium [⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr] and those isotope ratios are reflected in plants and water.

“We use other elements, but in this case, we’re focusing on strontium, which has proven to be really useful because of its strong link to geology,” coauthor Gabe Bowen said. “Ultimately it comes down to where that element comes from, how the animal gets it into their body and from what sources.”

The isotope ⁸⁷Sr is radiogenic, meaning it is produced from the decay of another element, in this case rubidium, found next door to strontium on the Periodic Table, whose half-life exceeds 49 billion years, about 10 times the age of Earth. While ⁸⁷Sr increases over time, the abundance of other strontium isotopes remains fixed. Accordingly, isotope ratios are a proxy for the age of rocks and typically differ from place to place.

Coauthor Thure Cerling, a highly decorated distinguished U professor of both geology and biology, is a pioneer in the use of isotope analysis to shed light on ecological questions such as soil formation, animal physiology, wildlife ecology and climate change.

Read the entire story by Brian Maffly in @TheU.

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tooth enamel helps reconstruct wildlife migrations

Utah geologists show how strontium isotopes found in teeth or tusks reveal where large plant-eating animals have roamed.